>>2322192You need a drill press unless you're doing short hidden tangs or a bunch of short sections, it's too hard to line it up with a hand drill. My first one had a bore that came out the side of the handle once I started filing it down. It's as simple as drilling two or three holes, filing or routing them out until the tang fits, and gluing it all together in a vice. I got lazy on that one after 3 days of hand filing, stuck the fucker in a stump and beat the handle on. I'm surprised I didn't split it. I peened the tang to hold it in and there's no front bolster.
A properly filed and fitted bolster will hide messy work on both ends, the Lauri ones usually need minimal filing on the backside and you can hammer them on with a piece of pipe for a sealed fit at the base. I'll go to my computer for some useful bookmarks on how to do it right.
I fucked up a nice piece of curly birch, a bolster, and just about everything else you could and said fuggit, I'm making a maasepan puukko and grabbed some firewood. It really pays to have the right tools or know someone who does.
